There are many market areas where businesses must define and manage large and complex information interrelationships. This is most acute in the interconnection and control of the billions of digital devices embedded in our daily lives. This is the future “Internet of Things”, which has proven to be a problem space that many current approaches are ill-suited to tackle. Similar kinds of problems arise in information management systems, process control, or interactive adaptive control systems.
As these complex engineered systems become more ubiquitous, the interactions between different systems become more complex and unpredictable. Systems architects are responsible for developing processes and systems that can provide proper information and control for large and complex systems of systems (SoS). There is a critical need in many fields for an integrated approach that can collect, hold, synthesize, manage and control the relationships between systems and the data in the systems, and be scalable from the smallest to the largest, with similar processes operating on the various systems regardless of their size or type. The last need represents the fractal nature of a solution that is required to address complex systems effectively.
One common solution to these needs is the development of a database application that manages the storage of data and complex relationships, while another program processes and manages control messages at a single centralized point. This solution requires ever-increasing computing power and more complex message control. However, it is often the case that otherwise good intentions are thwarted as unintended consequences dominate the desired outcomes.
Many current approaches utilize graph databases as a simple repository for facts and local relationships within the data. However, these approaches have not been sufficient to address the overwhelming complexity of current datasets.
By contrast, in the technology presented herein the overall graph structure has meaning that integrates all of these relationships and control networks into a broader context; in the same sense that a ‘forest’ is more than a ‘collection of trees’.
The discussion of the background herein is included to explain the context of the technology. This is not to be taken as an admission that any of the material referred to was published, known, or part of the common general knowledge as at the priority date of any of the claims found appended hereto.
Throughout the description and claims of the specification the word “comprise” and variations thereof, such as “comprising” and “comprises”, is not intended to exclude other additives, components, integers or steps.